Kittilä Expedition 2023 - Part Two

The arrival of the main party breathed new life into our little expedition.

The Sub Zero Crew was created as a co-operative group to open opportunities for  people of mixed bushcraft backgrounds and skills to visit the Arctic Boreal Forest / Tiaga. Some members have more Arctic / Cold weather experience than others but all have their own expertise in some aspect of bushcraft or another.

It would be very easy for an outsider to simply think of members as either ”newbies“ or ”old hands” but that would be missing the point entirely.  Each member of our team arrives with skills and expertise in their own fields. They may not have been to the Arctic before but they are all experienced outdoorsmen/women and a number had extensive mountain and climbing experience.  There were no ”Greenhorns“ on this trip.

Very often it is the fresh perspectives of less specialised members that provide the greatest innovations. Less influenced by convention, they approach challenges from different directions, often using the skills they already possess to produce novel solutions to problems that they may not necessarily have encountered before. I learned far more on this trip by watching some of our newer members than any amount of hackneyed lecturing from self professed experts. That is the great strength of  diversity and co-operation in a group like this.

In no time at all the camp was planned out and quickly set up. Each instinctively knowing their own part in the operation and going about it with a minimum of fuss.

A decision was quickly made about the position of the communal fireplace and I set about consolidating the snow and digging it out it while the tents were pitched. Wordless efficiency stemming from long familiarity and deep friendship.

One other place I have seen such purposeful efficiency is in the military and it is no great surprise that a few of our crew have that as part of their diverse  backgrounds too.

Within a couple of hours of arrival the camp was set up and all in good order.

Each party member had a “buddy” that they were sharing accommodation with and that would cast a watchful eye over and as the temperature plummeted on that first day that system would be tested for the first time.

One member of the main party picked up a Norovirus infection either at the airport or just before. Added to the strain of hauling a heavy sled a couple of miles while running a fever and getting pain from his hip, he started sweating into his clothing badly and had to shed layers in an attempt to control his temperature.

When he stopped at the camp his temperature then dropped too quickly and exacerbated by his Type II Diabetes and dehydration from his sweating, it led quickly to a state of exhaustion, possibly bringing on a mild case of Hyperthermia. What he needed was fluids and to be put into his sleeping bag for some rest.

His Buddy was aware of the situation and was starting to produce the liquids that would address the dehydration issue when another member of the party took over, dragged him into a smoke filled tent and started blowing the whole matter into some kind of crisis.

After much unnecessary drama, the situation returned to normal when he was returned to his own tent and the very next day he actually led  the successful treatment of another party member that had developed a minor case of frost nip.

In fact that initial case of Norovirus, which became known in the camp as the “Kittila Joik” spread quite virulently though the party and the fact that we achieved so much, in spite of such a nasty contagion, speaks volumes about the strong teamwork running through most of the group.

Few people visit the Arctic without at least hoping to see the Northern Lights. It really is not something you can schedule though.  

First the Sun needs to be active enough to be discharging matter in our direction. Then it has to  be dark enough to see the interaction between that matter and the Earth’s magnetic field. You need clear weather so that clouds do not obscure your view and then you need to be awake and in the right place to actually see the light show. I have been incredibly lucky over the years, seeing the lights ten times now in five different countries.

Seeing the Aurora was certainly high on the list of hoped for experiences for most of our party. I keep track of Solar Weather with a few useful APPs on my phone and although I knew there was a good possibility of activity on this night, the weather forecast did not look promising. Fortunately it was the weather forecast that was wrong, we were lucky enough to get a clear a sky and a dramatic appearance of the lights.

Fortune favours the bold I guess.

Next morning broke crisp and cold and the day would go on to record or coldest temperature of the trip -32.96°c by the evening

It also treated us to the other kind of light show the Arctic is known for.

Photographers call the time around sunrise and sunset the “Golden Hours” because the low angled rays of the sun saturate the landscape with it’s warm toned light. In the Arctic Winter the sun is always close to the horizon and those golden hours extend for much of the day.

Add to that the white reflective surface of the snow and a clear day is a photographers dream.

The next day, Dave, Susanne and I went into town. The local friend that had visited on skis the other day, a lovely lady called Maija, had arranged to meet Susanne at a local cafe and Dave and I wanted to check out a hardware store.

Apparently, and unbeknownst to us, our exploits had become a bit of a talking point around the town and the local paper wanted to hold an interview with us. A time was arranged on the last day that the main party would be in camp before moving to a hotel to prepare their baggage for the return flights.

Pete’s Smokehouse shelter accumulated snow in much the same way and the Snow Shed did, needing to be brushed off occasionally but otherwise working well.

The classic Laavu / Kata design certainly seems to work best in this environment.

Do you remember me mentioning how fresh perspectives often lead to novel solutions?

Here is a good example.   Conventional wisdom would generally lead to mounting a stove on a wide platform or bars to stop it from sinking into the snow. The two Matt’s solution was much more elegant. two forked sticks driven through the snow and into the ground,  then two bars resting on the forks supporting the stove.

Same result but without cluttering up the cold well so that people could walk in and out without stepping over long bars. simple, elegant and effective.

As is so often the case on a short trip, it seems like you are just getting to grips with the camp routines when the trip starts drawing to a close. This is part of the reason that I had moved things around a bit so I could get more time on the ground than the main party.

There were so many things that we had planned to do which in the end we just didn’t find time for.

One thing that Matt had wanted to try out was making a Finnish Candle, a simple vertically oriented fire made with a split log. That at least was something we fitted in.

The journalist followed one of the float paths to our camp and turned up promptly at eleven, chatted for a while, took a few photos and presented a good little write up in the local paper. He sent us a copy of the article which Matthew has translated for us and which I have posted here:

From the Right: Dave Delany, Myself, Pete Nex, Jason Frances, Matthew Mutch, Riam Fox Bateman, Matt Pattison, with Julie Lowe and Susanne Williams at the front.

Packing to leave happened with much the same efficiency as the arrival had demonstrated. The toboggans were the only things still to pack when they had served their purpose in getting the gear to the layby from where the taxi would take most of the the team to the hotel.

Once at the layby, the toboggans were rolled up and packed into the bags as well.

One of the most complex packing jobs was getting six people and all their baggage into a nine seater taxi.

Part Three

Unless noted otherwise, all photography, artwork and content on this site is copyrighted. © Gary Waidson 2022 All rights reserved

The Ice Raven Project promotes sustainable and low impact bushcraft and wilderness skills in Arctic and winter conditions. This includes the use of  tents, tarps  and snow shelters where possible. Fires are only used where safe and where use and collection of firewood will not damage the natural environment. We often travel to locations by public transport and then use snowshoes, sleds, toboggans and pulks to transport our equipment into the wilderness.